


Continually Unexpected

by Moonprincess92



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Asexual Kay, F/M, Fluff and Humor, POV Outsider, basically Kay watches the drama play out with equal parts horror and amusement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-21
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-01-21 01:35:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12446648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonprincess92/pseuds/Moonprincess92
Summary: Various moments over the course of Jyn and Cassian's relationship... from the perspective of their long-suffering roommate, Kay Tu.





	1. Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to @roaaoife and @lostinmirkwood for helping me out with a title! 
> 
> ..............look, i literally just wanted a fic that was Kay's perspective on rebelcaptain and it somehow turned into this monster. All up it was over 10 thousand words and i've figured out by this point that only I like to read 10 thousand word oneshots LOL, so i'm splitting it up into something more reasonable hahahahahahaha 
> 
> I also wanted to write about Kay and Jyn's relationship together, so expect some more love/hate bonding :D 
> 
> Either way, I hope yall liked it!!!!! Please let me know what you think!!  
> xoxoxoxoxo

Kay Tu knew Cassian Andor long before Jyn Erso ever did,  _thank you very much_.

One shared class together at university resulted in them sitting next to each other, see, and it was a well-known fact that Cassian’s knowledge in Statistical Theory was mediocre at best. Naturally, Kay offered his talents and he accepted. For some odd reason people seemed to think that Kay was ‘weird’ and ‘stilted’ (whatever that meant) so Kay had been content to call Cassian Andor – fresh-faced and on exchange from Mexico – his only friend.

(He heard the whispers like, “Naturally the only guy he can make friends with is the one that barely speaks English,” but Kay paid them no mind. He knew better).

They stuck together, him and Cassian. They avoided the parties and shared tables at the library. They got their first off-campus flat together, and even eventually graduated together. They went through the typical bout of post-uni unemployment (in which Kay spent hours scrolling through listings that never seemed to end and all screamed  _5+ years of experience needed_ , while Cassian went through a quarter-life crisis, watching outdated telenovelas on the sofa in his underwear) until eventually, they found jobs. They’d been through crazy ex-flatmates that ate soap and stole food together, heartbreaks and aches, they even went skiing in Austria together!

They were it for each other. They didn’t need anyone else, least of all  _Jyn Erso_.

But he was there the night they met. Parties were often too loud and involved far too much talking for Kay’s liking, but one of Cassian’s work colleagues was getting married and apparently, it was in good taste to show up. Not wanting to go alone, Kay had been dragged along to the pub that had been hired out for the event, the place full of cops in uncomfortably formal clothes who clearly weren’t sure how to have a good time without liberal amounts of alcohol.

Kes Dameron had briefly introduced them to Jyn half an hour ago as his and Shara’s new next door neighbour who had just moved to the city. More had been said, but Kay hadn’t exactly been interested in meaningless backstory, so had tuned out.

Cassian, however, had hung onto every word and now apparently had an utter fascination with the back of the woman’s head.

“I believe people don’t like it when you stare at them, Cassian,” Kay rolled his eyes.

Cassian snapped his gaze back to the drink in his hand. “Shut up.”

“No, actually, I’m fairly certain it’s a socially unacceptable behaviour–”

“I wasn’t  _staring_.”

Kay blinked. “Your blatant denial is confusing.”

Cassian groaned, pressing his fingers hard down over his eyes. “FINE. She’s hot, Kay.”

“OHHH,” Kay risked societal shunning to get an actual good look at the woman, seeing as he had an actual reason to this time. Across the room, Jyn Erso hovered somewhat awkwardly on the edges of a conversation, there but not quite there at the same time (Kay understood that, at least. Apparently it was considered ‘weird’ to just stand alone at these kinds of social events so he often integrated himself into other people’s conversations just to fit in). She wore a lot of black, her dark hair thrown up in a bun and going a little too heavy on the eyeliner (not to mention the wine), but objectively Kay could observe that she was physically attractive. He wasn’t surprised that Cassian had gotten drawn to her.

“I see,” he said. “Why don’t you talk to her?”

“I don’t even know her! What could I say?” Cassian waved a hand, apparently trying to ignore the way his face was flushing a little.

“How about ‘hi, my name is Cassian, we were introduced earlier this evening’?”

“And after that?”

Kay considered.

“I suppose you don’t want me to suggest ‘I think you’re hot’ right?”

Cassian snorted, lifting his glass and draining the rest of his own wine in one go. “I appreciate the help, man.”

“I will never understand why you bother, Cassian.”

Kay, quite honestly, was perfectly content without romance in his life. Hell, he barely understood other humans on a basic small talk level (in an ideal world, he would talk to everyone in binary coding/emoji). Cassian, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy trying to form interpersonal connections with other people. His attempts at forming said connections often fell flat, but it wasn’t for the lack of trying. Sometimes, he came home with dates and Kay was forced to share his pancakes with them the next morning. Sometimes, he saw someone more than twice, and even more often these relationships would end disastrously somehow but the man just kept on trying! Kay often suspected it was Cassian’s difficulty in letting himself actually feel something that caused all these untimely demises, but he figured it was best to let him figure that out on his own.

“You never know if you don’t try, right?” Cassian said. He clapped a hand onto Kay’s shoulder. “See you in five minutes after I strike out.”

But incredibly… Cassian didn’t strike out.

* * *

The first time Kay actually properly met Jyn, she was half-naked and eating his cereal.

“Those are MY cornflakes,” he said, outraged.

She span around at his voice, the bowl sloshing milk over the side which quite honestly, was even more offensive than the food stealing. Who over-pours a perfectly good bowl of cereal? He glared at her for literally any kind of response as she stood there in her bare feet, messy hair and oversized Oxford jumper that Kay knew for a fact belonged to Cassian. She hastily finished her mouthful before gesturing at him with her spoon.

“You’re Kay, right? The flatmate?”

“I’m Kay, and you’re eating my cornflakes!”

“Hey, Cassian said I could help myself to whatever,” she shrugged.

“Cassian’s spaces in the pantry are the bottom two shelves and those cornflakes were CLEARLY on the top shelf,” Kay folded his arms in a huff. “How did you even reach it?”

“I’m sorry, was that a dig at my height?”

Kay just glared pointedly.

Jyn rolled her eyes. “I climbed.”

Honestly, Kay should have just expected this behaviour. She and Cassian had been dating for around five weeks now, which had been plenty of time for Cassian to tell him all about her ( _every damn detail about her_ ). But of course, his flatmate was an entirely unreliable narrator with his stories riddled with inconsistencies, so Kay had become an expert in taking off the rose-coloured glasses for him. Jyn Erso, from what he’d been told, was a waitress and not a very good one. She was rude, prickly and completely unreliable. Her only friends were the soon-to-be-Damerons and the old Asian couple who lived in the flat across from her (one of whom was apparently blind, so maybe he simply couldn’t see her coming in time to hide?). She was guarded and clearly had a past that she didn’t like to talk about, but Cassian was already head over heels for the girl, much to Kay’s concern.

“So how come I’m only just meeting you, then?” Jyn asked.

“Sorry?”

“You’re Cassian’s best friend,” Jyn shrugged. “It’s been over a month.”

“I’ve been pretty busy at work,” Kay said, shortly.

“Oh riiiiight, you’re the one who’s the software engineer?” she shovelled another mouthful of cereal into her mouth. Jesus Christ, she ate like a wild animal! “Smart that, I barely know how to turn a computer on.”

Kay couldn’t handle this. He stalked forward and snatched up the offending box of cornflakes from where they were sitting ever so innocently on the kitchen bench. “I would appreciate it if next time, you ask before eating something that isn’t yours,” he snapped, moving and placing it back in its place in the pantry. “I don’t know if Cassian’s told you yet, but we do have a rule that if a girlfriend stays for more than five days in a row, they contribute to the flat expenses and that includes food–”

“Whoa, hey,” Jyn suddenly held up a hand, flushing red. “Easy, mate, we haven’t even had that conversation yet–”

“Which conversation?”

“ _Which_ –? Blimey, he mentioned that you were a bit of a square,” Jyn muttered. “Look, we’re just dating, don’t go throwing around the word  _girlfriend_ –”

“Hey.”

The two of them both snapped their heads around at the sound of Cassian padding into the kitchen. He looked a little worse for wear with his hair in disarray and missing a shirt, but Kay had seen him in nearly every state of dress one could think of, he wasn’t going to judge. Jyn, however, dropped her bowl onto the kitchen bench with a slight  _clang_.

“Cassian, I have met Jyn Erso and it’s of my opinion that you shouldn’t date someone who steals food,” he said, firmly.

But incredibly, Cassian ignored him. Well!

“Sorry about him,” he said to Jyn.

“’s all right.”

A bit of a pause, in which Kay rolled his eyes and went to go pour some of HIS cereal.

“Would you freak out if I said I kind of want you to be my girlfriend?”

Jyn slowly slid closer to him across the kitchen floor. “ _Maaaaaaybe_ ,” she warbled. “Are you asking?”

“Can I really ask in a way that doesn’t make me sound like I’m in high school?”

“Mmmm, probably not,” Jyn admitted, reaching out and snaking her arms around his waist. She glanced up at him innocently and added, “Actually, I’m not too great with these kinds of conversations either. Maybe you just kiss me and we skip the talking part.”

“Ok, girlfriend.”

“Honestly,” Kay huffed as the two started kissing. “At least wait until I’m out of the room!”

* * *

See, they are affectionate with each other.

Like…  _really_ affectionate.

Quite frankly, Kay wasn’t used to seeing the level of intimacy that Cassian kept expressing with Jyn. He was usually so closed off, of course assuming that he even let someone stay for longer than a night. It was odd seeing Cassian indulging in that level of physical comfort, but apparently he was enjoying it. Too often Kay would come home from work to find them splayed out on the sofa together Jyn lying against his chest, or see them kiss each other goodbye. He caught them chasing each other around the kitchen, Jyn even leaping right over the kitchen table only to eventually get caught in the middle of the room, Cassian snatching her up from behind and spinning her around. Whenever they had time to go out for the occasional drink with Kes and Shara, they would absently play with each other’s fingers as they talked, or his arm would be draped around her.

Sometimes, he’d even overheard them having loud arguments over which Hogwarts house they would be in while in the shower.

Kay wasn’t quite sure what to do with this new, affectionate Cassian and honestly, the worst moments were the nights she stayed over.

Thankfully, it wasn’t as often as he’d initially feared. Kay had been preparing himself (with the face of someone being sentenced to the gallows) for Jyn to basically move in with them, but it was their jobs that often kept them apart. As a waitress, Jyn usually worked evenings and Cassian’s hours were erratic at best thanks to his work. The decision to become a police officer had never even been Cassian’s intention, the idea only having first come to him when he’d graduated university with a degree that he hated and not much family left to go back home to in Mexico. However, while initially it was a good thing that she wasn’t over as often as he’d thought, it meant that they apparently tried to make up for it whenever they were together.

Like… they REALLY tried to make up for it.

Honestly, whoever designed this flat with the bedrooms sharing a wall should have reconsidered. Kay grumbled as yet another dull  _thunk_ echoed through and he adjusted his headphones. All he wanted to do was watch his war documentary in peace! But Jyn had turned up unexpectedly and Kay had stuck his head out his bedroom door to bite out an obligatory hello, only to see them smashed up against the hallway wall. One of her legs had been hitched up around his waist, his tongue had been quite clearly down her throat and it was FAR MORE than he’d ever wished to see! He’d quickly hidden himself back in his room, only he was now being forced to bump up the volume on his laptop what felt like every five seconds.

“I’m sure Cassian is very competent at sexual intercourse, you don’t need to reassure him that you’re having a good time so much,” Kay grumbled under his breath, before finally yanking his headphones off. “HEY!” he yelled, slamming a fist into the wall. “SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO RELAX!”

Silence from their end. Then an undignified snort of laughter, and another quite deliberant  _bang_  of the headboard against the wall.

“ _Couldn’t agree more_ ,” Jyn clearly called back.

The nerve of that girl.

“I mean it! I will unplug my headphones!”

“ _Mmmm… do it_ ,” Jyn’s voice was a little muffled as it drifted through the wood but it was impossible to not catch the hitch in her voice. “ _Nothing could stop us at this point_.”

“CASSIAN, I AM HIGHLY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU.”

No answer, except for more banging, more audible groans. Eventually, Jyn laughed.

“ _Cassian can’t come to the phone right now_.”

“AND WHY NOT?”

“ _It’s kinda hard for him to talk when I’m sitting on his face._ ”

Kay slammed his laptop shut.

“THAT’S IT,” he declared. “I HATE YOU BOTH.”

\---

He stayed at the gym probably an entire extra hour longer than he usually would. You know, just to make absolutely sure that they would have finished their ‘activities’ by the time he got home. Sure enough, when he gingerly stepped back in through the front door, it was to find the flat dark and quiet. He would have normally waited to take his shower in the morning out of curtesy, but a part of him still kind of wanted revenge and he made to turn on the water anyway. Maybe it was a little petty of him, but passive-aggressiveness seemed to be engrained into both his and Jyn’s make-up, so it was at least one thing they had in common.

He did not expect to open the bathroom door and find her crying silently as she stared at her phone.

“Oh,” he said, uncomfortably.

“Kay,” she straightened hastily from where she leaned against the sink. She swiped at her eyes and for some reason he thought not to turn on the lights. They stayed in the dark as he didn’t say anything, she didn’t say anything, and eventually he figured he probably SHOULD say something, lest his mother ever find out that he walked into a room with a crying woman in it and didn’t make sure she was ok.

“Why are you crying?” he asked.

“’s nothing…” She shook her head. “Were you seriously at the gym this late?”

“It’s a 24 hour one. But I don’t understand, you were happy when I left earlier this evening.”

“You don’t get to choose when people message you,” Jyn said.

Ah. So she had gotten an upsetting text or call or something. While that explained the situation, it didn’t help in the slightest since he still didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He supposed any other person would attempt to comfort her, but they honestly didn’t really know each other and quite frankly, this woman perplexed him. He ended up going for something in the middle, in which he loped forward and patted her roughly on the shoulder.

“There, there.”

She stared.

“Please stop.”

“Oh, thank you,” he sighed with relief, stepping back. On the down side, that did mean there was just more silence, and with Jyn it was uncomfortable and still loud somehow. She watched her bare feet, twisting them against the tiles and it looked like she was waiting for something impossible. Kay didn’t know what. Cassian would say something poetic, like she was waiting for the stars to align or something. He didn’t know what her story was or what her issues were, how long she had been waiting for whatever it was she wanted and really at the end of the day, he didn’t want to know… but he supposed a part of him was glad to see a tiny part of the real her. 

“For what it’s worth,” he ended up saying. “I’m glad that you guys seem happy.”

She glanced up at him and gave him a genuine, if slightly strained nod of acknowledgement.

“Thanks.”

He didn’t say anything else and she didn’t seem to mind.

* * *

About eight months into Cassian and Jyn’s relationship, they attended the wedding of Kes Dameron and Shara Bey.

Kay didn’t exactly get the fuss about weddings, but he could at least appreciate them. He saw the delight on their friends’ faces whenever they spoke about it and that was important to him, so he wore the uncomfortable suit and sat politely throughout the ceremony, always smiling whenever it was appropriate. He even grinned and bared the awkward conversations with Dameron family members! Jyn was a bridesmaid (something she apparently still hadn’t forgiven Shara for, but the woman had insisted and Jyn just hadn’t been able to say no) but on the upside, as she had mentioned earlier with an exasperated sigh, at least her dress was stunning. Stunning enough that Jyn became the talk of the wedding and even Kay had sniffed at her and said that she looked decent enough.

Not that she had to worry about fending off suitors. She and Cassian had spent a majority of the reception making out over by the bathrooms, making it 100% clear that she wasn’t interested in literally anything else. Kay only managed to catch Cassian a handful of times, most notably when Jyn was being forced to go dance with Shara and Cassian was sitting at their table, knocking back champagne.

“Oh, good!” Kay exclaimed enthusiastically, sitting down next to his friend. “A moment that you aren’t attached to Jyn! I can ask you how it’s going.”

Cassian just snorted. “You want to ask me how it’s going?”

“Ok, what I really wanted to tell you is that Kes and Shara clearly paid far too much for this buffet,” He held up a canapé. “You can tell that this isn’t even proper–”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Cassian held up a hand.

They were quiet for several moments as the music blared and they both watched the crowd of people dancing. Shara held Jyn’s hands, despite the other woman’s exasperation and swung her around the dance floor. Jyn Erso had her faults, sure, but indulging in her friends wasn’t one of them, Kay could admit that at least. He was surprised when he looked over and noticed the look on Cassian’s face. It was pure adoration. Bliss. It was like he was imagining the night that Kay had walked into the kitchen one morning to find the two of them dancing to some ridiculous dance pop song on the radio. They had laughed and grinded and Kay had backed away slowly, figuring that he would just eat breakfast later. Kay hesitated for a second, before he finally decided that months of this madness was certainly far enough.

He needed answers.

“Are you in love with Jyn?”

Cassian promptly choked on his champagne.

Kay hastily thumped him on the back. Cassian coughed and spluttered for a moment until eventually, he was able to breathe normally. “Jesus Christ, Kay,” he gasped. “Give a guy some warning.”

“You were surprised by my asking?”

But Cassian was shaking his head now, which of course just made it even more confusing!

“Cassian, I don’t  _understand_. You seem incredibly satisfied with your relationship with Jyn Erso, to the point where it has lasted more than half a year. That is the longest you have ever been with anyone, at least since I have known you, yet you choke when I ask you whether you’re in love with her?”

“It’s a–” Cassian sighed. “Kay, it’s a hard question to answer.”

“How? Either you love her or you don’t.”

“It’s not that simple,” Cassian slumped back into his chair, placing his glass gingerly back onto the elaborately decorated table. “Kay, she’s incredible. I can honestly say I’ve never felt like this for anyone, which sounds ridiculously cheesy even though it’s true… but there’s still a lot we don’t know about each other,” He looked at him helplessly. “There’s some things in her past… some things I know she isn’t telling me about. I have my secrets too, but I’d share them with her if she asked. Her… she keeps things buried.”

Kay considered this for a moment.

“Have you asked her?”

“ _Asked her?_ ”

“Well, it’s the most obvious solution to everything you are worrying about,” Kay just shrugged. “You say she won’t tell you these things about her, but have you actually asked?”

The night in the bathroom came vividly to mind. Jyn Erso might be a naturally closed off person, but she could open up to people who mattered. Cassian stared at him for so long, Kay almost thought he had broken his best friend somehow. Then suddenly, Cassian said in a slightly bemused voice,

“Excuse me, please… turns out I have to… uh… go somewhere.”

“By all means,” Kay waved a hand with a flourish.

By all accounts, he really shouldn’t have been encouraging it. Jyn Erso was a menace to society, they all knew that! But he’d never seen Cassian smile so much since he met her and for some inane reason… Kay encouraged him to launch himself across the dance floor, sweeping her up out of Shara’s grip and into his own.


	2. Middle

 

Cassian and Jyn were having a fight.

It could be worse, Kay supposed. They could have been fighting out in the lounge, which would have meant that Kay, Kes and Shara would all be stuck in the kitchen with absolutely no way of getting out without interrupting. At least this way, the two were contained to Cassian’s bedroom and there was no chance of accidentally looking at Jyn in just the wrong way to make her explode. They’d had fights before, of course – usually because Jyn had watched ‘their show’ without him, or he’d bought the wrong type of mayonnaise again – but Kay had to admit that they’d never really had a fight on this scale before.

They once again turned up the volume of  _Brooklyn Nine-Nine_ just a bit louder.

“For the record, I told him not to tell her,” Kay helpfully put out there.

Kes and Shara both looked at him like he’d grown a third head. You know, people actually looked at him like that quite a lot.

“WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?” Shara cried.

“Because I knew Jyn would get mad!” Kay pointed out. “And look, she did!”

“Of course she’s bloody mad, I would be too if I found out that my boyfriend had been looking into my father’s case without telling me,” Kes added.

Well, ok. Maybe Cassian had gone about it in the wrong way, but he’d meant well! The death of Jyn’s father when she was eight-years-old had been a bit of a sore subject ever since they’d met the girl. She never wanted to talk about it, yet it clearly ate away at her and if Cassian had the resources to do something about it, why wouldn’t he? For some reason he cared about the insane girl, so it only made sense.

… ok, the looks on Kes and Shara’s faces were telling him otherwise.

“Kay, honey, let me break this down for you,” Shara began, leaning forward. “Jyn didn’t want Cassian to look into this. He did anyway. It’s a breach of trust, that’s why she’s angry.”

“But he found something pertinent to the case–”

“He shouldn’t have looked into it in the first place!”

“Well, yeah,” Kes was running a hand through his hair now, giving his new wife a kind of sheepish look. “Buuuuut–”

“Oh, Christ, you helped him didn’t you?” Shara closed her eyes painfully.

“He needed authorisation and technically, I outrank him!” Kes explained hastily. “But Shara, look what he found – the man might not even be dead, wouldn’t you want to know–?”

“Quite frankly, I have no idea,” Shara burst out, throwing her hands up. “Because I, thankfully, have never had to deal with such thing. Jyn, on the other hand, has and I think her reaction clearly says that no, she didn’t want to know.”

Kes fell into a chastised silence. Under the police bullpen antics currently playing out on screen, the loud, angry voices of Cassian and Jyn were still yelling. How long were they going to have it out like this? Kay did actually need to get some sleep that night, after all –

A door suddenly slammed.

Shara immediately hit mute. There was a ringing silence as the T.V. cut out and suddenly, Jyn’s footsteps seemed ten times louder. She emerged from the hallway like a raging wildebeest, face hard and tears staining her skin. “Jyn–” Shara began, but she ignored her friend completely. Jyn stormed right out of the flat without saying a word, slamming the door shut behind her with a loud  _bang_.

Kay exchanged looks with Kes and Shara. Cassian didn’t emerge after her, so Kay could only assume that he was still in his room.

“What do we do?” he asked, hesitantly.

For once, he was glad that Shara was around. “YOU, go make sure he isn’t drowning in tears or throwing himself out a window,” she told him. “YOU,” she added to Kes, who visibly wilted. “go order some Chinese food or something. I’m going after Jyn and taking her home. I’ll see you idiots in the morning, ok?”

Kay didn’t really want to knock on the door, but he was determined to call himself a good friend. He got no answer, so he edged into the room and took in the mess of clothes on the floor, the thankfully closed window and the lump of a flatmate currently flopped face-down on the bed.

“Are you drowning in tears?”

“Not helping, Kay.”

No, he supposed not. He inched forward, sitting down on the edge of Cassian’s bed. He patted his flatmate’s shoulder.

“There, there.”

No, his comforting tactics apparently hadn’t gotten better, but it was all he had.

“Are you trying to comfort me?”

“Shara told me to.”

Cassian sighed, before rolling over and heaving himself upright. His face was red, whether from anger or desolation, he wasn’t sure, but the point was that he clearly wasn’t ok and Kay didn’t know how to fix it. “What can I do?” he asked.

“Kay, I fucked up.”

“I gathered that,” Kay muttered, mostly under his breath. “but how do we fix it?”

“I don’t know if I can,” Cassian leaned over, resting his elbows on his knees, head in his heads. “Shit, I thought I was helping, I thought… I don’t know what the hell I thought. I wasn’t thinking at all. I should have just left it alone like she asked, but I couldn’t help myself and now she hates me–”

“You did it because you care,” Kay pointed out. “Surely she can’t fault you for that? Actually, scrap that, Jyn can find fault in anything.”

“Again, still not helping.”

“Right,” Kay nodded. “Well… usually, when people mess up they start with apologising?”

“I’m not sure sorry is going to cut it.”

“Well, I don’t know – hold on, I need to google this–” Kay huffed, pulling out his phone.

“No, no, Kay – you don’t–”

But he continued typing, ignoring Cassian’s attempts to grab his phone off him. “Here we go!” Kay said, stretching his phone up high out of reach. “How to get someone to forgive you –  _first step: apologise_. Well, we’ve already decided that that’s not going to work, so  _step 2_ –”

“Kay this is ridiculous.”

“– _give them time and space_. You need to leave her alone, apparently.”

“Yeah, no kidding, she said she never wants to see me again,” Cassian muttered. “Would you seriously stop?”

“Wait, she said that?” Kay forgot about the phone, staring at him. “Cassian, did you and Jyn break up?”

Cassian just stared back helplessly. For all his frustrations and annoyance at Jyn Erso, Kay had to admit that if there was anything the girl was good at, it was making Cassian happy. Kay honestly didn’t think he’d seen Cassian smile so much since he met her, and anything that made Cassian happy couldn’t be completely bad, no matter how crazy she might seem. If they had gone through everything only to break up just like all his other relationships had…

“I… yeah,” Cassian said, voice breaking.

Shit.

It was clear that Cassian was trying to hide the hurt on his face, but it wasn’t working. Kay tentatively reached out and squeezed his shoulder and Cassian pressed a hand to his eyes. “Sorry,  _sorry_ –” he gasped, trying to hold back the tears but Kay just shook his head. Even he understood the need to let emotions out.

“It’s fine, Cassian.”

He wrapped an arm tight around his friend and let him cry on his shoulder. 

* * *

Cassian went through what seemed to be an entire summer of Post-Break Up Disorder (or at least that’s what Shara called it).

While the sun blazed outside their flat, Cassian literally spent all his days  _moping_. Kay didn’t mind the lack of sun exposure – the sun was an evil ball of gas that tried to murder people, after all – but he did mind his flatmate constantly taking up the entire sofa, and often in just his underwear too.

“I know we are flatmates, but there is also a tolerance of how much of your legs I can stand and I have apparently reached it,” Kay finally ended up snapping one late August afternoon. He stood over Cassian’s prone form, having actually wondered if the man was dead for a moment before he’d let out a pitiful groan. “If you miss her this much, you should just call her already.”

“What part of  _I never want to see you again_  did you not get, Kay?”

“People say things they don’t mean in emotional moments,” Kay was quoting a Cosmopolitan article from the internet, but Cassian didn’t need to know that.

“I fucked it all up.”

“Yes. You did. Now for god’s bloody sake, go and fix it.”

Cassian sat up hesitantly. His hair was mused on one side and he clearly hadn’t shaved in weeks, his usual scruff having definitely turned into a full-blown beard. It was going to take some work, but Kay gritted his teeth, determined to get Cassian back to the level of a functioning human being again. The man got up in the morning, went to work, ate dinner, went to sleep, but he was clearly devastated. If they’d been even half in love as much as they’d seemed to be, then surely Jyn was out there somewhere as well being just as equally miserable. After considering all the data he knew about the girl, he figured that she would never be the first to call, though, so that left Cassian to do the reaching out.

And he had to, because Kay couldn’t take much more of this.

“You know,” Cassian mentioned, rubbing his eyes. “I never thought you liked Jyn.”

Kay scoffed. “I don’t. She’s rude and steals food.”

“Why aren’t you happy she’s gone, then?”

Kay stared at his friend. Was he joking? Sometimes he found it difficult to tell.

“Are you telling a joke? It’s not entirely funny.”

“Kay, seriously.”

Kay huffed. “Look, you are my best friend. I love you. Jyn made you happy and I hate seeing you sad, so yeah, I want you to call her and fix it already.”

To his horror, Cassian looked like he was about to cry again. Oh, god!

“Kay…” his voice broke.

Kay leaned down and snatched up Cassian’s phone before his flatmate could even argue. All signs of affection left his eyes as he yelped, “HEY!” and attempted to snag the phone back but Kay shoved him away, hastily scrolling through the contacts. He eventually found the one titled ‘ _DON’T CALL HER_ ’ and hit call.

It dialled for a long time, in which Cassian practically chased him around their lounge. Kay cursed under his breath when he considered the idea that perhaps Jyn would simply not answer, but eventually her voice clicked through and only then did Kay give up the phone, slapping it to Cassian’s ear.

The man had no choice but to talk. “I – shit – um, hey,” he cringed slightly. Kay held his breath. Would she hang up? Were they doomed to live in this Post-Break Up Purgatory forever?

“Yeah… look, I didn’t mean to call,” Cassian cringed then. “Or I – I wanted to – but I didn’t because… how have you been?” 

\--- 

She didn’t hang up. It wasn’t a long call, but there at least seemed to be a conversation happening, and it didn’t seem as awkward as Kay had imagined such a thing would probably be. Cassian had shut himself up in his room and Kay swore he wasn’t trying to listen. Really.

“So what did she say?” he burst out the second the door opened.

“ _Jesus Christ,_ Kay,” Cassian leapt a mile, clutching at his chest.

“Huh. As a police officer, I would have thought you had better instincts than that.”

Cassian glared, silently making his way to the kitchen. Kay observed that he had put on jeans and that he was moving his phone around in his hands, like he was reluctant to put it down. Kay waited all the way until Cassian had pulled out ingredients for dinner before asking once more,

“WHAT DID SHE SAY?”

“Nothing,” Cassian snapped. Then he sighed and hung his head. “Or… look, mostly nothing. It was small talk mainly, she said she was thinking about quitting her job and doing something different, I told her about some dead body we found the other day with a pigs head sewn onto it, that kind of thing.”

“You talked to her… about a dead person with a pig head?”

“It sounds terrible when you say it!”

“But did you apologise?” Kay stressed. That point was crucial, that’s what every article he looked up said!

“Kay, would you drop it?” Cassian turned to give him a riled look. “I wasn’t even ready to call her, let alone apologise.”

“But you will apologise?”

“ _Yes_. I wanted to,” Cassian said, quietly. “just now. But we were talking and it wasn’t going badly and I didn’t want to ruin it. I said we should get dinner sometime and she said that would be nice. Is that a start, at least?”

“I think that question is better directed at Kes or Cosmopolitan.”

“…I’m sorry, did you just say ‘Cosmopolitan’?”

Curses. He had accidentally admitted to his research.

“I just mean when it comes to emotional things I’m not the best person to ask, you know that,” Kay said, awkwardly shuffling his feet. “but objectively… dinner gives you both a chance to sit down face to face and talk with the buffer of food. From where I’m standing, it sounds like a good idea.”

Cassian nodded.

“What if I screw up again?”

Kay just shrugged.

“I’ll attempt to cry at your funeral.” 

* * *

They get back together, but not in the way Kay had hoped for. 

Apparently, Jyn had accepted the apology. She had even admitted that she was ready to look into her father’s case, ready to work it and try and figure out what had actually happened to him and her mother all those years ago, but for some reason it still wasn’t enough to get them actually together again and Kay couldn’t figure out why. She started coming over again, spending their evenings on the couch together and it was  _almost_  the same as before, except instead of trashy movies that they always ended up making out to, it was case files and crime scene photos scattered over the coffee table. He often talked to her on the phone late at night, his voice echoing distantly through the walls. Kay observed them speak to each other with emotional eyes, watched them give lingering looks across the lounge when they thought the other wasn’t looking, but they never hung out without the buffer of the case and at first he couldn’t figure out why it felt so weird and full of tension whenever he came home to find them there.

But eventually, he realised it was because maintaining a professional distance had to be slowly killing them.

Look, he wasn’t the best reader of people. It took Shara pointing it out to him but once the idea was in his head, he couldn’t un-see it. Put simply, Cassian and Jyn were  _pining_  and it was almost unbearable to watch.

“You HAVE to help me,” Cassian practically begged one evening, about three months into this madness.

“Cassian, I am VOLUNTARILY at a party,” Kay pointed out, having to practically yell over the music. “Remember how I don’t do parties? I have vowed not to leave this quiet corner of the kitchen the entire night, so sorry, I am unable to help you with whatever it is that you need.”

“KAY,” Cassian was holding onto his arm rather painfully. “I’m serious, I need your help.”

“Get someone else! I’m content to just stay here and pet the cat,” Kay went back to stroking Kes and Shara’s ginger kitten, BeeBee, who was currently snuggled up in his arms.

“Look,” Cassian rubbed his forehead warily. “It’s Kes’ birthday. You know that he’s going to get me drunk. And when I get drunk, you know that I will end up trying to call Jyn.” 

“Why is that a bad thing? You’re talking again, right?”

“We’re only just starting to become friends again!” Cassian said, glancing around hastily as if someone might overhear them, although for what reason they would Kay couldn’t exactly fathom. “Jesus, Kay, I don’t want to fuck this up again before I’ve even properly fixed it!”

“So just get someone to hide your phone like you usually do,” Kay shrugged.  

“I would,” Cassian explained desperately. “but I’m on-call at work, and I’ve got a guy keeping an eye out in the drug circles in case he hears anything about… anyway, look, hiding my phone just isn’t possible tonight, so I need you to stay close by so that you can stop me when I ultimately end up trying to call her.”

Kay sighed, bending to plop BeeBee down onto the floor. The kitten whined and clawed at his trousers, but that was going to be the least of his worries that night.

“I’m going to regret this,” he pointed out. “but fine.”

\---

It took 3 hours and 17 minutes for Cassian to attempt calling her.

“NO,” Kay snatched the phone right out of his hands. “You said to stop you,  so I’m stopping you!”

“’mm not gonna say anythin’  _bad_  –  _ay_  –” As he tended to do when he was piss drunk, Cassian descended into barely intelligible Spanish that even a hammered Kes couldn’t quite understand.

“ENGLISH, CASSIAN.”

“I LOVE HER, OK?” he cried, throwing up his hands. “Is that so bad that I want to tell her that?!”

“When you’re at this level of inebriation, yes!” Kay pointed out. He quickly steered Cassian over to the spare sofa that Kes and Shara had within their hallway. It was shoved there not so much for convenience (since the back door didn’t open the whole way now because of it) but more because they couldn’t seem to sell the damn thing yet and didn’t know where else to put it. But at least it meant that it was out of the way of the main birthday celebrations, the raucous singing and drinking games carrying on in the next room and giving the two of them room to breathe and think out here. Kay dropped down next to Cassian, still holding the phone protectively against his chest as his friend protested.

“I’m not  _that_ drunk…” he mumbled.

Kay just scoffed. “Sure. And when you call Jyn, what exactly are you planning on saying to her?”

“That she should – come to the – the party?” Cassian had a little difficulty focusing on Kay’s face. Probably because of that last tequila shot.

“She was invited. I think if she’d wanted to come, she would be here already.”

“ _You don’t knooooow_.”

“You’re not calling her, Cassian.”

“KAAAAAYYYY,” he whined.

“You said that things are going well between you!” Kay pointed out. “You don’t want to mess that up, right?”

“Fuck that, I miss herrrrr,” Cassian moaned into his hands. He leaned forward, elbows pressed into his knees as he suddenly retched and Kay hastily picked his feet up off the floor. “Ugh – sorry –” Cassian added.

“Please do not vomit on me. I love you, but not that much.”

“Kay,” One of Cassian’s hands reached out unsteadily, grabbing tightly at his shoulder. His head still hung low and he looked in danger of passing out, but his words were still strong, if a bit slurred. “God, I literally miss her so much – I wanna hold her and kiss her until she forgets how to breathe and - tell me, am I just fuckin’ –  _fuckin’_  delusional? Jyn hasn’t really forgiven me, she’s not gonna –  _not ever_ \- she’s not gonna want me back ever, right? I’m such an idiot–”

In amongst Cassian’s ranting, Kay suddenly felt the phone still clutched tightly in his hand buzz. Ensuring that Cassian wasn’t going to keel over and was still sufficiently wasted enough that he wasn’t going to notice if he checked, Kay curiously peeked at the messages that he’d apparently been sent by Jyn.

 _11.53pm_  
sorry for late msg, couldn’t sleep   
11.53pm   
wanted to say thank u for the other day

He read them over again for a minute or two, when another suddenly buzzed in.

_11.56pm  
just…………yeah. thanks for being there_

“Hey,” Kay shoved the phone in his pocket, moving to wrap his arm around Cassian’s shoulders. “It’s going to be ok.”

“What do YOU know?”

“Apparently more than you,” Kay scoffed under his breath.

* * *

“They’re so fucking in love with each other, I’m going insane!” Shara whined.

She had cornered Kay near the bathrooms of the ballroom. Kay hadn’t quite known why, since all he wanted to do was lurk on the edges of the crowd until this entire thing was over and he could go home. Uncomfortable social situations seemed to be the only thing he and Jyn had in common, since he had observed her from across the ballroom at their table with the disdain on her face, the third glass of wine in her hands. She hadn’t wanted to come to Cassian’s award ceremony, but he had asked and Kay had gotten the impression that she hadn’t known how to say no. That was certainly how he had felt when his flatmate had asked him! Cassian kept going on and on about how what he’d done wasn’t that heroic anyway, that anyone would have plunged into an exploding building to save a young family that he barely knew, but the truth of the matter was that the bruises on his face spoke for themselves. Cassian had saved lives, and that (unfortunately for Kay) deserved all the medals in the world.

He glanced over at Shara.

“I’m sorry, did you want to engage in gossip?”

She laughed. “I’m so glad we’re friends.”

Kay huffed. “We are acquaintances at best.”

“Oh, hush,” Shara waved a hand. “I hugged you on your birthday, we’re friends.”

Kay refrained from rolling his eyes. Cassian had told him once that people didn’t really like it when he did that.

“Fine. You want to talk about Cassian and Jyn.”

“Don’t you?” Shara pointed out across the hall. While Jyn sulked at the table, Cassian was several feet away, apparently balls-deep in Schmoozing Hell. He was shaking hands with important looking people who were probably high up somewhere in the justice system and he had the rightfully collected yet humble air of someone who had just received a medal of valour.

Jyn watched him with the same helplessness one might give to a cute puppy. Not that Kay really cared for animals, but he’d been told they were impossible to resist.

“I wouldn’t care,” Kay began. “only Cassian didn’t cry nearly as much back when they were together.”

“The idiots still love each other,” Shara sighed, shaking her head at the crowd. “Cassian’s been a gonner ever since they met, we all know that, but Jyn… that girl is fucked and she knows it.”

“So why won’t they say anything?”

“Did you not hear me mention they’re idiots?”

Kay hummed a little. “Seems that it would be prudent to… help them out a little?”

Shara gave him a half-mocking gasp. “Kay Tu! Are you suggesting that we meddle?”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Doesn’t matter – I agree whole-heartedly!” Shara insisted. “But what do we do? Do you have a plan in mind?”

“It’s not like I think about this every night before I go to bed, Shara.”

She snorted. “Well, I got nothing apart from lock them in a cupboard, and I have a feeling that they’d kill us if we did that.”

“There’s no need for those measures,” Kay said sensibly. “No, their problem seems to be communicating, so it makes sense that we need to get them to talk to each other. And not just about the weather or food, about important things. About their emotions and their relationship.”

“Yikes.”

“Yes, I can acknowledge that it would be a difficult task.”

“Not impossible, though,” Shara mentioned slowly. Kay turned to look at her. “If we could get one of them talking and then get the other one somewhere they can overhear, then maybe it’ll spark something?”

Kay considered.

“I’m in.”

\---

Quite honestly, Kay was half expecting the plan to blow up in their faces.

He didn’t feel guilty about it. They weren’t exactly ‘meddling’ or even manipulating the situation. They were just… creating an opportunity. It was up to them how they decided to take it. Since there was no mistaking Cassian’s feelings (Kes’ birthday wasn't the first time he got drunk and cried about how much he still loved her and it certainly hadn't been the last), they decided it would hopefully work best if he overheard Jyn. Of course, that gave them the added challenge of somehow getting Jyn Erso – a woman with the emotional capability of a  _lizard_  – to open up about her feelings. Shara initially offered to take that job, but Kay suddenly found himself offering instead, although why he couldn’t fathom. The two of them had a very colourful history of not getting along, after all.

But he had watched her sitting there alone at the table, melancholy and uncomfortable, and he had related.

So here he was.

“Objectively, I can see that you are having just a bad a time here as I am,” he declared upon sitting down next to her.

Jyn just scoffed and drank more wine.

“Staring at Cassian isn’t going to make him your boyfriend again,” he also pointed out.

“I’m sorry, why are you talking to me?” Jyn shot him a look.

Kay just shrugged. Somewhere behind Jyn’s back, Shara was waving at him frantically, encouraging him to get the ball rolling, so to speak. Maybe he couldn’t understand Jyn’s emotions in relation to Cassian, but damn it, he could understand more than people thought!

He was doing this.

“I am considering drinking wine.”

Jyn mock gasped. “Have you ever drunk anything in your life?”

“I tried beer during university,” Kay answered, affronted.

Jyn looked like she was on the verge of laughing. Then, she silently offered up her wine.

If this was what it took to get them to talk to each other, he would gladly sacrifice himself.

The wine tasted awful, but apparently according to Jyn that wasn’t the point. “It’s cheap and it gets you trashed,” she said as he spluttered and complained. “that’s all it needs to do.”

“You are a waitress! Surely you have better taste than this!”

“Sure,” she shrugged. “but the good shit costs more.”

He admittedly conceded her that. Kay didn’t know exactly how much wine it was going to take (not to mention that she’d already had a decent amount already) so he just kept drinking until eventually, the lights started blurring and Jyn's face became more and more difficult to stay focused on. She mocked him for his slight stature and apparent inability to hold alcohol, but finally, eventually, she burst out,

“Ever wish you could just go back in time and unfuck everything?”

Kay was struggling to hold onto reasonable thought – goodness, THIS was what wayward drunkenness was like? It was absurd! – but he recognised the opener.

“Time machines have been proven to wreck more havoc on the timestreams than to actually be useful.”

“Bet you’re a blast at parties,” she deadpanned.

“Cassian still loves you, Jyn.”

She turned and stared at him for a moment.

“He won’t do anything about it though because he thinks you don’t want that anymore.”

“You–” Jyn stammered, before glancing away. “Jesus, I haven’t had nearly enough for this.”

“Seriously? We’ve drunk like, almost an entire bottle between us–”

“Was this your big plan or something?” Jyn scoffed. “Get me drunk and hope that I would spill out all my secrets and undying love or whatever?”

Kay stared wide eyed, before frantically trying to catch Shara’s eye over her shoulder.

_ABORT, ABORT, SHARA WE HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED._

“Is it working?” Kay asked, weakly.

“I was going to say no… but you know what, fuck it,” Jyn said before slamming her glass down onto the table. “Kay, I’m the one who broke up with him. He’s the one who messed up. What would that say about me if I took him back?”

“You’d be taking each other back.”

Jyn glanced away dejectedly. “It’s not the same.”

“He is MISERABLE without you, and it’s killing all of us!” Kay threw up his hands desperately. “Has he apologised for looking into your father’s case without telling you?”

“Yes.”

“And have you forgiven him?”

She hesitated then, but still answered, “… yes.” 

“ _Then what is the big deal?_ ”

“I’m scared!” Jyn cried, making Kay blink. Somewhere behind them, he noticed Shara trying to rope in Cassian. “Christ, Kay, I’ve never been in love before. Everything about that entire relationship felt like a free fall, I was just spiralling out of control and waiting until it ultimately crashed and burned. Nothing I do… every relationship I have ends that way,” Jyn pressed her fingers into her eyes. Kay watched her, tentatively suggesting,

“You care.”

“I care too much,” Jyn muttered around her hand. “and that scares me, so I hold back and I sabotage everything. I know he didn’t do it to hurt me, I know he was only trying to help and yes it was a breach of trust, but it wasn’t done out of maliciousness. We’re adults, we’re supposed to be able to learn from our mistakes, but I just cut and run instead! Who wants to be with someone who acts like that at the first sign of things getting hard?”

“I think he does.”

“What the fuck do you know?”

“Well, I can see the look on his face,” Kay pointed out. “and I know I’m terrible at reading people, but I know my best friend.”

“Sorry?”

Kay just nodded behind her.

Jyn span in her chair and lurched hastily to her feet. Cassian watched her with a mixture of awe and something else that Kay was starting to think might be love. Kay tried to stand too, only he accidentally ended up breaking the tension by standing too quickly and promptly keeling over onto the floor.

“Oh my god!” Shara laughed, moving to help him up.

“Wait, did you get Kay drunk?” Cassian asked in bewilderment.

“He got himself drunk,” Jyn waved a hand dismissively. “and… I think I just walked myself straight into their stupid plan to get us to talk.”

“I’m not drunk!” Kay protested. Honestly, he felt fine! … if a little dizzy.

“Of course not,” Shara told him. “C’mon, up you get–”

By the time he was standing again, Cassian and Jyn were still staring at each other with about two feet between them. This was atrocious.

Cassian opened his mouth to say something, but Jyn was quick to cut across him.

“ _Don’t_ say you’re sorry again.”

“I wasn’t,” he said.  

“Because you don’t need to,” Jyn added. “you’ve said it enough, and now it’s my turn. I’m sorry that I gave up. I’m sorry that I hurt you. I’m sorry that I was never brave enough to say the words. Really, I’m just… sorry for everything.”

Shara and Kay turned to look at Cassian.

“I still love you,” he said, simply.

Shara and Kay turned back to Jyn.

“HA. Yeah…” she laughed awkwardly before apparently giving in. “I still love you, too.”

“I think,” Shara tugged on Kay’s arm. “now is about the time we give them space.”

“Why?” Jyn tossed out dryly. “you haven’t up until this point.”

Shara nodded. “Touché.”

So they stayed, and Cassian and Jyn launched straight into each other’s arms. Shara cheered, screaming, “WOOOOO!” right in Kay’s ear as the two clutched at each other, Cassian’s hands framing her face as Jyn pressed her lips fiercely to his. They looked so  _happy_ , thrilled and petrified and looking like they weren’t going to let each other go for a long time.

“I think our plan worked,” he mentioned in surprise. “Can I go home now?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEYOOOOOO gotta always have the second-act break up :D imagining Kay having to handle heartbroken Cassian for an entire summer SHOULD be sad to me, but unfortunately I only find it hilarious hahahaha Also note how i changed it from '12 moments' to just 'various moments' bc i ended up adding more to this chapter (OOPS) and now there's more than 12 lol, so uhhhhhhh this just proves that i shouldn't be allowed to plan anything ever lol 
> 
> But anyway, again I hope yall liked this!! Please let me know what u think, much love!  
> xoxo


	3. End

Kay had been preparing himself for the day honestly ever since they had gotten back together, yet he found that he was still not even remotely ready for it when it came.

He’d put it out of his mind. Seriously, it was more of an abstract concept that had no meaning really, as Cassian and Jyn spent their time being all wrapped up in each other again. Ever since the award ceremony, they were once again joined at the hip! It was just like old times as she dropped by unannounced, continued to eat Kay’s cereal (scrawling ‘ _thanks! :)’_  on the box every time) and once again finding himself investing in a pair of decent headphones to drown out any noises that may emit from Cassian’s bedroom. No, the idea stayed on a backburner, simmering away but never really coming to the front… until the day that Cassian came home from work with his anxiety levels apparently through the roof and an impulsively bought engagement ring in his pocket.

“Kay… I think I did something stupid today,” he said as a greeting.

“Do I have to bury a body?” Kay asked, flatly.

“What? No.”

“Because I think we have a shovel in our storage space downstairs and if we’re going to do it, we had been get onto it before the rain comes–”

“While I appreciate your willingness to cover up a murder for me,” Cassian said, shutting the front door behind him and dropping his bag and coat onto the chair in their hallway. “No crime has been committed, except perhaps that I’m convinced someone has stolen my sanity.”

“I see,” Kay put down his phone. “Right, I’m listening. Explain.”

Cassian nodded, abnormally white-faced as he walked further into the lounge. That was odd. Even stranger still was the way he just blurted out the words without so much as a breath, “So I was just walking to the train station after work, when I noticed this jewellery store still open and I swear I only noticed because there were all these sale signs outside of it. Really, you couldn’t  _not_ notice! Anyway, there were these rings in the window and they were at a reasonable price and I didn’t even think about it, I just…”

He suddenly shoved his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out the slightly crumpled store gift bag. He reached inside and pulled out the box, which he then handed to Kay. Kay took it with some trepidation, before lifting the lid and seeing the engagement ring that Cassian had chosen.

_Blimey._

“That… is one hell of an impulse buy, Cassian.” 

“AM I INSANE?”

“Oh, definitely,” Kay said, scrutinising the ring. He didn’t know much about gems and precious stones, but considering that Cassian had said he got it on sale, he’d guess that he’d certainly gotten his money’s worth. “Does Jyn even wear rings?”

“Fuck,” Cassian squeezed the bridge of his nose. “I didn’t even think of that.”

“When are you going to ask her?” 

“YOU THINK I HAVE A PLAN?” Cassian said, wildly. “Kay, I bought that on a complete whim! Sure, yes, I would marry Jyn in a heartbeat, but we haven’t talked about it at all yet, I don’t even know if she wants to live with me! I really am fucking crazy.”

“Well, maybe you just… hold onto it, then?” Kay suggested.

“What,” Cassian finally came and sat down, flopping with a defeated  _whoosh_  next to Kay on the sofa. “just… hide it and never ask her?”

“Well, not never,” Kay snapped the lid closed, handing the ring back to him. “You said you’d like to marry her someday. Maybe just hold onto it until you’re actually ready to ask?”

“Yes,” Cassian said, with the kind of manic look that one might have if they had impulsively bought an engagement ring for their girlfriend. “Yes, that’s a good plan! But you’ll have to hide it for me.”

“ME?” Kay said, affronted.

“I can’t keep it in my room, she’ll find it!” Cassian said. “I don’t know how, but if anyone could, it’s Jyn. And how often does she ever go into your room?”

Kay unfortunately couldn’t argue with that logic.

“ _Fine_. But know that if someone ever accidentally finds it, I’m calling you out.”

“Fair enough.”

* * *

 

Somehow, Kay had found himself at yet another party. How did this keep happening to him?

At least this time it was Cassian’s birthday, so it was for a reason that Kay somewhat cared about. Their flat was overrun with people, their friends and colleagues laughing and chatting over the top 40 music that was blasting from the stereo. Jyn was naturally binging on Mezcal because this was about Cassian, it was a Mezcal night damn it, and Kay had already been forced to intervene and rescue her from plummeting headfirst into the floor several times.

Kay had already drunk his quota of alcohol for the next 10 years of course, so he was happy to stick to his virgin rum and coke. “You realise tha’s jusss coke, righ’?” Jyn had slurred at him at one point, but he digressed. He was able to experience more or less the same taste of a usual rum and coke, only without the side effects of falling down! It was foolproof. Why didn’t everyone do this?

Cassian thankfully wasn’t quite as shit-faced as Jyn currently was, despite the fact that he was now only 2 years away from 30 and that concept did seem a little daunting, even to Kay. He’d been somewhat on edge ever since the whole ‘Ring Incident’ (Kay technically wasn’t allowed to call it that, but how else was he supposed to refer to it?) only tonight he seemed calm. Happy. He was dancing with Jyn in their lounge, his arms tight around her waist and her hands in his hair. It could barely be called dancing, if truth be told, but they were having fun and that was the main thing.

He watched them from across the lounge, the self-appointed DJ of the evening, since apparently no one else had the ability to choose a song that hadn’t been overplayed on the radio yet. Honestly, Kay didn’t think they’d never been this loose before. Before they’d broken up, when they were first together, there had always been a kind of tension to them and they’d always been happy of course, but they’d never looked quite so…  _free_. Jyn’s head turned with the beat, giving Cassian access to her throat and he spent the next several minutes exploring it with his mouth. She laughed, grinding her hips up into his and it turns out that they must have been walking on eggshells the entire time. He’d never seen them this close before.

Not physically close (he’d unfortunately seen a bit too much of THAT before) but  _emotionally_  close. Which wasn’t something he’d ever thought Jyn Erso capable of.

He tore his eyes away from them. There was something there that seemed too intimate to witness… that, and by his usual calculations, this was about when  _tongues_ would start to become involved, and he had no intentions of seeing that! Shara was there in front of him now, requesting a certain song and he happily allowed himself to get distracted. He played whatever inane pop songs everyone wanted and quite honestly, Kay was able to forget about Cassian and Jyn entirely… right up until he walked in on them in the hallway.

 _Naturally_. 

Still wrapped up in their own world, they thankfully didn’t notice him stumble to a hasty stop. They’d apparently been in the middle of dragging themselves off to Cassian’s room (Kay’s was technically closer, but they would never dare, surely) when they’d apparently gotten side-tracked. He had shoved her up against the wall, Jyn’s legs up around his waist and seemingly permanently attached at the mouth. Kay sighed. Every time! 

He was about to do an about face and walk back off again, however, when he heard his name.

“But I need to talk to Kay first–”

Jyn groaned a little, although it could have been more of a pained whimper. “That’s  _really_ not a name I want to hear when making out, Cassian.”

“Sorry,” he murmured against her. “just – this affects him too. I can’t just announce ‘oh by the way, Jyn’s moving in with us’ it doesn’t work that way–”

“True,” Jyn hummed. “it would probably send him into shock.”

“ _Jynnnn_.”

“You’re too nice,” she smirked into his lips.

“We’ve been living together for almost 10 years, it would be the end of an era–”

“It was the end of an era when you first met each other,” Kay helpfully pointed out.

The two of them broke apart, yelping slightly. Jyn almost fell as she was hastily dumped back on her feet and Kay stepped forward, unable to help revealing himself. Cassian clutched at his heart a little, the other arm gripping around Jyn’s waist.

“Where’d you come from?” Cassian asked. “Fuck, Kay, I didn’t mean – I’m so sorry–”

“Stop apologising,” Kay waved away at once. “it is clear that at some point during this party you have decided to move in together, but you do not have to worry. I am completely on board.”

Jyn exchanged a disbelieving glance. “But you hate me.”

“You are mistaken. I only hate you every second day.”

She actually let out of a bark of laughter, burying her nose into Cassian’s shirt for a second. “It’s really ok with you?” Cassian asked, tentatively. “We’re not asking you to move out or anything–”  

“Oh, I understand,” Kay nodded. “Couples live with flatmates all the time, and a third person would help keep the rent down. Really, there are no downsides to this scenario.”

“I’m scared. Why’s he being so reasonable?” Jyn stage hissed at Cassian.

 _Honestly_. The truth of the matter was that they were probably ready to move in together and if it was going to make them happy, then he was willing to go along with it. Less rent was just a bonus. However, that reasoning was incredibly sentimental which he just knew that Jyn would rip him apart for, so in the end he just settled on saying,

“But if I have to catch you guys making out  _one more time_ , I’m going to smash something.”

Cassian threw back his head in laughter, although Jyn was already quickly reaching up for him. “Punch a hole in the wall then,” she grinned, before crushing her lips back to his.

Kay rolled his eyes.

* * *

 

Somehow, there ended up being an evening in which Kay and Jyn actually Hung Out.  

It wasn’t exactly by choice. Cassian was busy working a case, and Jyn had been living with them for three weeks now, so an argument over who got to use the T.V. had only eventually been settled when they had decided that watching something together was the only fair solution.

“But just to make it clear,” Kay pointed out from his end of the sofa. “I only agreed to watch something together, I did NOT agree to specifically watch  _Harry Potter_.”

“Do you want to fight me?”

On any other day maybe, but he was tired and his head hurt from dealing with her.

“I don’t understand any of this movie, it makes no sense,” Kay gestured vaguely at the screen, where the children were currently flying around on broomsticks with CGI backgrounds. “They have magic, yet they write with quills? What about electricity? Are you telling me that they live alongside the modern world, yet are less updated than them? What if there was an emergency, an owl isn’t going to deliver something in real time–”

“OH MY GOD, it’s a movie about kid wizards ok?” Jyn burst out. “Don’t overthink it.”

“ _But. It. Makes. No. Sense_.”

“It’s 2017 and you’ve never seen  _Harry Potter_ , you don’t get to talk about what makes sense.”

Kay grumbled a little, but otherwise didn’t have an argument for that one. He sat in silence, watching Harry’s broom go haywire. At least the child actors in this movie were decent enough. It was odd that none of this actually felt… well,  _odd_. Despite all of his assurances that he was ok with it, Kay had admittedly kind of dreaded the inevitable move-in day that he’d known was coming. However, in the end Jyn becoming a part of the flat felt… strangely natural. She had been practically living with them anyway so moving in officially really hadn’t made much difference, except that they also got her mail now too and that their rent was of course slightly lower. Sure, there were more frustrating scrambles to get the bathroom first and Jyn always complained that Kay was slowing down the internet with his programming, but at the end of the day, she more or less fit seamlessly into their lives.

(She still stole his cereal, though. It seemed that nothing was going to stop THAT).

As Harry’s adventure continued, Kay made sure to keep providing his always thought-provoking commentary while Jyn consistently threw popcorn at his head. Right when Harry and his friends were running through a poorly constructed set of a forest, however, there was a knock at the door. Kay was more than eager to take a break to go and answer it.

“No, you don’t have to pause!” he called back down the hall. “In fact,  _please_  don’t pause it,” he added in a mutter.

He opened the door to find a weary-looking middle-aged man standing out in the hall. Kay narrowed his eyes at his bulky stature, dark hair and heavy eyes. He wasn’t someone he had ever seen before, and Kay said, “Yes, can I help you?”

“Hello. Is Jyn Erso there?”

“Who are you?” Kay stared, but within the next two seconds, he answered his own question. He’d seen the case files often enough to recognise the face. He’d seen him on the news and hell honestly, just from the way the man held himself told Kay everything he needed to know.

Huh. Maybe he was better at reading people than he originally thought.

“You’re her father, aren’t you?” Kay blurted out.

Galen Erso sighed. “I’ve heard that she’s been trying to find me–”

Kay slammed the door right in his face and promptly locked it.

“Kay?” Jyn’s voice echoed from the lounge.

“PLEASE BE AWARE THAT MY FLATMATE IS A POLICE OFFICER,” Kay barked through the door. “I AM CALLING HIM IMMEDIATELY. IF YOU ATTEMPT TO ENTER THE PREMISES I WILL NOT HESITATE TO USE FORCE AGAINST YOU.”

Jyn skidded into the hallway within five seconds.

“What the hell is going on?” she said in alarm.

“Jyn, CALL THE COPS.”

She did without hesitation. Punching the number into her phone, she glared at him and all but demanded, “ _What is it?_ ”

“Your father is here.”

\--- 

It was a lot of commotion.

Harry’s adventure was abandoned in favour of their own drama that was unfolding within their very building. Kay wasn’t even sure how the man had gotten inside, but either way Cassian was called, who apparently then brought with him what felt like an entire  _battalion_  of cops. Galen Erso was arrested and Jyn had refused to say even one word to him the entire time.

“He faked his death to go and work for a shadow government that was developing illegal drugs and weapons,” Jyn had snapped earlier when Kay had questioned it. “I don’t want to even know him.”

Kay didn’t really understand, as he stood on the front steps of their building, watching Galen get put into the back of the police car. Jyn had spent a good majority of her life thinking he was dead (or maybe hoping he was dead?) and when she’d learned that he was alive, she’d wanted nothing more than to find him. Only now that he had reached out and found her… she was pushing him away.

Kay supposed he didn’t really need to understand, though. Figuring out Jyn Erso was a job best left to Cassian, who had wrapped an arm around her some time ago and had his hand firmly anchored in her hair. He couldn’t see Jyn’s face, but Cassian seemed to be whispering to her and Kay was satisfied knowing that he was there. He would take care of her.

Kay was a little confused, therefore, about how Jyn managed to go from Cassian’s arms to cornering him up on the steps only minutes later.

“So… you won’t hesitate to use force, huh?” she mentioned.

He huffed. “I’ll admit that came out in the moment. I apologise.”

“Don’t,” Jyn’s voice was quiet, but he heard her. He turned to see her with her arms folded tightly across her chest, hair hiding her face. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“Well,” Kay spluttered, quite unsure about how to answer. “You’re welcome?”

It seemed that she made a split second decision because suddenly, she was moving forward and wrapping her arms around him. Oh dear lord! Kay quite honestly floundered, because he didn’t  _do_ hugs, where was he supposed to put his arms, did she even want him to hug her back? She squeezed tight, almost too tight, but as annoying and grating as she could be sometimes, Kay realised that his earlier statement of it all being ‘in the moment’ wasn’t entirely true. If it meant protecting Jyn Erso… he would always use whatever force necessary.

He never expected  _this_.

He awkwardly patted her on the back. She laughed.

* * *

 

Kay got the phone call at roughly 8pm.

“I was just about to watch  _Goblet of Fire_ , this better be important–”

“ _KAY_ ,” Cassian hissed down the line. “ _I need you to bring the ring!_ ”

Kay hit pause immediately.

“Is this for real this time?”

Cassian had called with that exact phrase no less than twenty times since he’d actually bought the damn thing half a year ago. Every now and then, he would suddenly decide it was time and Kay would bring it out of its hiding place amongst his socks (he thought it was probably best not to ever inform Jyn of that fact) only to go and find Cassian rocking back and forth on the floor, shaking his head and saying, “Never mind, never mind, maybe next time…”

Apparently, it was next time. AGAIN.

“ _This is real as fuck, I promise you!_ ” Cassian stage whispered. “ _How quickly can you get to the park?_ ”

“Maybe twenty minutes, if the traffic is good – but Cassian, I’m not going all the way into town, just for you to back out again.”

“ _I promise I’m not backing out. THIS IS IT_ ,” He assumed that Jyn was still nearby, since Cassian was still attempting to keep his voice low. “ _We went to dinner at the same place we went on our first date, and there’s this night market with a bunch of lights and it’s cheesy but she’s happy and I’m happy and I have to marry this girl, SO PLEASE GET HERE_ –”

“Ok, ok!” Kay heaved himself up off his bed. “But be warned that if you’ve dragged me away from Harry Potter Night for another fake out, then I will be mightily displeased.”

Kay didn’t even know how Cassian ended up giving him directions to where they were. Their city was a big place, and he was left wandering the paths somewhere throughout the park, with nothing but a vague one-sided text conversation as his guide

 ** _From: Cassian_**  
_We’re next to the doutain_  
 _*foundtain_  
 _*FOUNTAIN_  
 _U know in the park go down the path nxt to the pond_  
 _Have u found the market??_  
 _Just walk right thru_  
 _Ashahdfhjdfhj_  
 _She keeps asking me who im txtng HRURRY UP_  
 _WE’RE @ THE FOUNTAIN WHERE R U_  
 _Hold up I see u!!!! dnt move!!!!_

Kay glanced up from his phone then, staring around in confusion across the market ‘square’ that was currently being hosted within the park. The ambiance  _was_  admittedly romantic, so Kay could at least accept that this was an appropriate time. Lanterns and other fairy lights were strung up through the makeshift streets, setting everything with a multi-coloured glow and he finally saw Jyn not too far away, apparently saving their seats at the edge of a large, ornate fountain. Cassian looked a little crazy-eyed when he hurled up to him from amongst the crowd, but Kay didn’t fault him. This was a big deal.

If he actually did it this time.

“Thank god, where is it?” Cassian asked a little frantically.

Kay pulled the ring from his pocket and handed it over. “I expect this to be beautiful,” he warned. “I’ve been live-tweeting about it ever since you called.”

“KAY.”

“What?” Kay shrugged. “Shara says that if I go viral, I might get on Ellen.”

Cassian just turned and stomped away. As he approached Jyn once more, Kay pulled out his phone and started filming on selfie mode.

“Well, he took the ring… as you can see, target is in sight. Also Ellen, if you’re watching this, my friend Shara loves you.”

* * *

 

They didn’t end up on Ellen, but she DID retweet his video and apparently that was all it took to go viral these days.

“ _Guy Livetweets His Best Friend’s Proposal And It’s Hilarious_ ,” Kay read.

“Oh my god, you legit got on fucking  _Buzzfeed_ ,” Shara snatched the phone right out of his hand.

Apparently, his ‘clinical, deadpan approach’ was a hit with people and the fact that he wasn’t even trying to be funny at all had made it all the more funnier! Kay was kind of in awe over the entire thing – he had gained thousands upon thousands of Twitter followers practically overnight, which was slightly overwhelming when he remembered that he’d had a grand total of 12 before this entire thing had happened. He was getting messages from all sorts of websites asking for comments, but he was content to just keep deleting them. Shara got her shoutout, and Cassian and Jyn were engaged. That was all that mattered to him.

“It gets better,” Jyn called out from the other side of the room, currently sitting snug under Cassian’s arm. “I think you’re a meme now.”

“WHAT?” Shara leapt across the room.

“Show me,” Kay insisted.

They all crowded around Jyn and her phone. She held up just one of what appeared to be many posts, all featuring his screenshotted face with the subtitle  _target in sight_. He watched Jyn scroll through the endless sea of posts.

_When u see bae across the room… target in sight._

_When it’s nearly the end of the semester… target in sight._

_When it’s September 30 th… _this time he had a pumpkin photoshopped over his head.

“THIS IS INCREDIBLE,” Shara was apparently beside herself.

“Work is actually going to fire me,” Kay noted.

“Hey, it’s not like you ASKED to go viral,” Cassian pointed out. 

Kay literally did not know how to dignify any response, so instead he just walked out of the room amidst peals of laughter from Jyn and Shara. One of these days he needed to get better friends. He decided to leave his phone behind, since every now and then it still pinged with a message or another, even though he had turned off all notifications that he possibly could several days ago and he was already looking through the pantry for something to cook when Cassian joined him.

“Oh, hello,” Kay noted. “Jyn and Shara laughed themselves into comas yet?”

“You’re ok with this, right?”

Kay turned to stare at Cassian. He stood in the middle of their quiet kitchen, barefoot with nerves written all over his face and Kay scoffed incredulously.

“Are you asking for my approval?” he asked.

“I… I don’t know,” Cassian ran a hand restlessly over the back of his neck. “Kay, with everything that’s happened, with it blowing up this big when I know you didn’t mean it to, I guess I just wanted to… to know whether you… we’re ok.”

“Cassian, I am ok.”

“Because it’s been you and me for so long and–”  

“Are you kidding?” Kay asked. “It hasn’t been just me and you for years! Jyn’s your life, Cassian, and that’s fine. I love both of you, I want you to be happy, and no amount of Twitter followers is going to make me change my mind.”

Cassian smiled weakly. “Shit, Kay.”

He winced. “I got emotional… I apologise.”

Cassian swung forward two steps before throwing his arms around him. Kay staggered slightly under the weight, but carefully figured out how to hug him back tightly (he liked to think he was starting to get better at it). He didn’t say anything for a long moment. The only sounds were Jyn and Shara’s voices chatting muffled in the other room, and Kay concentrated on just being there in his best friend’s presence. Friends liked that kind of thing.

“Thank you,” Cassian muttered into his shoulder, voice a little choked.

“It’s fine,” Kay replied.

“I mean it,” Cassian held him tight. “Thank you for being there for her. Thank you for looking out for her, even when she makes you watch stupid movies and steals your food. It means a lot that you care.”

“Hey, Harry Potter isn’t  _that_  stupid.”

Cassian laughed. “I love you, Kay.”

And for a moment, Kay did have that slight touch of emotion. A brief second of  _what if_ , what if everything did change from here? What if they got married and forgot about him, what if they grew up and they eventually become too different over the years, their lives slowly drifting further and further apart until their only interactions were happy birthday messages on Facebook? Rationally, Kay knew it wouldn’t likely happen, but it only took a second to second guess yourself and Kay let himself have that second to worry.

He clenched his arms tighter.

“I love you too, Cassian.”

* * *

 

Sometimes, Kay looked at Cassian and Jyn and wondered what it felt like.

He was honestly just curious. Back in the early days he’d almost thought that he was jealous of what they felt, certain his interest had to come back to why a love as strong as theirs never seemed to happen for him, but turned out it wasn’t about that at all. He knew now that it just wasn’t something he wanted or needed, but damn it they looked at each other like they each set the world on fire and he needed to know how they could stand it without burning up. Maybe they didn’t, he figured. Maybe they were both like stars, burning bright in this endless universe until eventually they would expand and explode. Become stardust.

Or something (he wasn’t good with analogies).

At one point, he had been resentful. He and Cassian had been doing just fine, he didn’t need this explosion of a girl to come in and shift their entire universe because things were just fine the way they were! But as much as Jyn was a pain in the arse, she hadn’t just changed Cassian’s life. She had significantly tilted Kay’s as well, to the point where he couldn’t even see the horizon anymore and he couldn’t imagine his life without her in it. Something in him still shuddered at the thought of calling her a friend, but he knew that he was willing to die for her if need be, and considering that Cassian was the only other person in the world he was willing to do that for, it said a lot.

Maybe he’d never really understand what it was that drew Cassian and Jyn together. They were certainly enigmas! Either way, he was still proud to be the one who was stepping up to her, offering his arm. 

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Kay did at least felt the need to that point out.

Jyn just shot him a look that he might have interpreted as disdainful, if he hadn’t actually known how nervous she was.

“That’s exactly what a girl wants to hear five minutes before her wedding,” she said.

“I just mean–” Kay cut himself off, frustrated. “What if I fall over? What if I say the wrong thing?”

“It’s the bloody 21st century, we’ve been over this, you don’t have to say anything!”

“BUT TRADITION DICTATES–”

“WE’RE NOT ARGUING ABOUT THIS NOW,” Jyn attempted to press warily onto her eyes before remembering the make-up. “Look, just – just walk me down the aisle and get me to Cassian in one piece, ok?”

Kay nodded, perhaps a little frantically. “Ok. Ok.”

“It’s gonna be fine, Kay!  _Jesus Christ_ , we should have eloped.”

“I approve whole-heartedly of that plan – we could leave right now and no one would be any of the wiser?”

“Tempting,” Jyn said, dryly. “but I think Cassian might get a little pissed in that scenario.”

“HA, HA,” Kay muttered. The doors opened then, the guests rising to their feet beyond and Shara turned to exchange an excited grin with them before music played and the Maid of Honour started the progression down the aisle. Oh, god!

Jyn suddenly turned to Kay. 

“Thank you,” she said, somehow panicked and earnest all at once. “I know I give you shit all the time but honestly, thank you for agreeing to do this.”

Kay squeezed his elbow around hers. 

“Of course. Do try to not fall over.”

“God, why do I bother?” Jyn muttered. 

Kay almost laughed. “Let’s just get you married.” 

And the two of them stepped out to start what felt like their miles long journey down the aisle. 

\- FIN 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S DOOOONE!!!!! Thank you so much for reading and commenting, honestly guys. Turns out I love my Kay Tu and I'm sUPER in love with the idea of him giving Jyn away at their wedding and asshfhjfhdhhd i HAVE FEELINGS ABOUT IT GUYSSSS SCREAM TO ME 
> 
> Either way. Please let me know if you liked it! THANK YOU AGAIN, I LOVE YALLLLLL  
> xoxoxoxoxoxo


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